Rift is WoW for people who hate WoW. It's exactly the same game but you can say "WoW ? Pff kiddy game. I play Rift !".

As for the question of the thread, i think after ICC and during Cataclysm they tried to cut back on content and probably thought that the players will stay nontheless but after that didn't work out they probably got their dev team back to the original size.

WoW isn't going anywhere until it becomes unprofitable and there are many courses that can be taken to ensure it does even if/when the game is no longer king of the market.
Even if the player base drops under it's absurd amount now people will scream it's dying;
Just like what happened with EQ.

...And this is really making me want to pick up that game in my free time to see how it's evolved.

Rift is WoW for people who hate WoW. It's exactly the same game but you can say "WoW ? Pff kiddy game. I play Rift !".

As for the question of the thread, i think after ICC and during Cataclysm they tried to cut back on content and probably thought that the players will stay nontheless but after that didn't work out they probably got their dev team back to the original size.

Honestly, this is one of the best analogies I've seen in a LONG time. Bravo little bunny.

I'm fairly certain that PS2's success has less to do with fanboys and more with the massive game library the console had.

Final Fantasy VII also had something to do with that. I hopped systems a lot to play Final Fantasy games along with other RPG games.

Speaking of, Final Fantasy XI is 11 years old and has a new expansion being released.

As for the Sony thing, had Blu-ray not won the format war the PS3 would probably not have been as popular as it is now. The only thing that keeps a system profitable now is exclusivity of its games. The more games are available on multiple consoles the more you can weed out bad systems now.

For WoW, I'll hold my judgment for how this tier ends. If Tier 15 goes like Tier 14 did where I have to wait until the VERY LAST DAY and get my 4-piece from LFR by flipping multiple coins on the Tuesday that ToT LFR launches I'm out. I already look at my alts and can't stomach grinding out Golden Lotus rep on them or suffering through endless Lei Shi and Tsu-takes-too-damned-long for possibility of gear. Let's face it: I'm old, I'm tired, and I can find better things to do to spend time with my irl friends than run around a fantasy world that decides to give us the middle finger on a regular basis.

Anyone else think Jaime Lannister only has the Kingslayer title because he was just too lazy to kill the king on heroic mode?

I think new glory days of WoW are only ahead of us.
No I'm not talking about subscriber numbers, but quality of the game, rate of content releases, more and more ingame activities. MoP improved so much this game and I think it's only the beginning.